


Unconventional Family

by VanillaHorizon



Series: Fictober 2019 [20]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Family, Fictober 2019, Humor, Humorous Ending, Meet the Family, Meeting the Parents, Siblings, Step-parents, Step-siblings, Trains, gypsies, nomads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-26 23:30:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21108962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaHorizon/pseuds/VanillaHorizon
Summary: Just because documents don't say that you have family doesn't mean that you don't. Garrus gets to meet Shepard's 'family' of nomads.Day twenty of the Fictober Challenge.





	Unconventional Family

**Author's Note:**

> Mass Effect didn't give me a backstory for my favorite kind of Shepard so obviously I made one.  
I headcanon that there are probably a lot of nomads in the Mass Effect universe version of Earth, I mean just think about it and it does make a good amount of sense, so yup, this fanfiction was born.  
Prompt: Train

Garrus was already nervous enough when Shepard had mentioned riding on a centuries-old train so they could go meet the group that she called her family.

"Don't worry Garrus, it's not really from the early 1900s, it's just modeled after one from that time and it's even been adjusted to fit atmospheric safety standards."

He certainly hoped so, especially considering how much pollution they were said to have put out during that time.

"Okay, fine, I trust you," he told her as he reached down to grab hold of her hand.

"Now, let's go get our tickets then get going."

When he mentioned getting tickets she glanced up at him as if he had just grown a second head.

"Who said anything about tickets?"

That was when he started to get a bad feeling about the whole ordeal.

The bad feeling he had was proven to be true when around a half-hour later, Shepard had introduced him to one of the most dangerous and heart-pounding things he thinks he had ever witnessed a human do.

"And how was jumping onto a moving train a better idea than just buying a ticket?" he was in clear distress once they had made it into the open train car, not that he wasn't in distress beforehand as well.

"The train doesn't stop where they live, so it was either this or walk through the woods for a few hours and hope that nothing or no one tried to attack or eat us, lesser of two evils and all," she told him calmly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to her.

He growled lowly as she propped herself up against the wall and smiled at him.

"You're the one who wanted to meet the family that no one knows I have, so we're going to meet them," she laughed.

In retrospect, he was the one who brought it up after she had met his sister and father.

"I guess I did, but I just didn't know they lived in the middle of nowhere," he admitted.

"They don't live in the middle of nowhere, they live where the land takes them, they're pretty much nomads, but everyone usually just calls us gypsies."

The last word she said didn't translate for some reason so he was left to wonder what she meant, too bad she had talked him into leaving his tech behind for the weekend.

"I think they'll adore you Garrus," she whispered to him when he finally joined her where she had propped herself against the wall.

Around an hour later she had him jumping from the moving train car as if he wasn't still terrified from jumping onto it earlier.

"Never again," he grumbled.

"Only on special occasions," she bargained.

He simply shook his head at her before looking around at the trees that surrounded them, "Are you sure we're in the right place?" he asked as she started to dig around in a nearby bush for something.

She let out a triumphant noise and hoisted a small bag into the air, "Of course we are, I lived with these people for a majority of my life."

Before he could ask what she was holding, a noise drew his attention away from her and to the treeline.

A man and a woman came swinging two sharp and primitive weapons through the foliage.

Immediately, he shoved Shepard behind him when he sensed the danger but she ducked under his arm as soon as they pulled their hoods back.

"Freddie! Sarah!" she called out to the two older looking humans just before she flew forward and flung her arms around their necks, leaving Garrus standing there utterly confused.

"Well, I'll be damned, if it isn't our little Shepard!" the older woman cooed as she pinched the red head's cheek affectionately.

Garrus cleared his throat to remind her that he hadn't been introduced.

"Oh, guys, this is Garrus, he's my-"

"Oh, believe me, we know all about the stories, dear," The old man chuckled.

"Yes, it's sort of a modern fairytale and love story around these parts and a lot of people are gonna be very eager to meet him."

Shepard simply laughed at the woman before he motioned for Garrus to follow them to wherever they were heading.

To say that Garrus was surprised when they arrived was an understatement.

The place was nothing more than a clearing in the middle of the woods, but in that clearing was basically a small town.

In the center of it all was what appeared to be a firepit.

Scattered around the clearing were dozens of small houses that seemed to set upon wheels and various tents that were surrounded by a large variety of chairs.

Not far away, he noticed different kinds of hammocks dotting the treeline, some occupied and others not.

Shepard watched his face with amusement as he took in the sights around him.

Slowing down to walk beside him, he nudged him with her elbow, "It's something, isn't it?" she beamed proudly.

"It's so peaceful, you can't even hear the buzz of electricity out here," he told her.

"Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean that it's not here," she pointed out as she motioned for him to look up at the roofs on some of the houses.

Most of them sported almost ancient looking solar panels.

He was utterly amazed at the hidden community she had apparently grown up in.

"Now, you've met the two people that were pretty much my parents, so now you get to meet all the siblings," she told him.

"Wait, how many siblings do you have?" His attention finally returned to her.

The smirk on her face told him he was probably going to regret asking.

"Only twenty-seven," she said before calmly turning around to walk away.

"Twenty-seven?" he squawked.

"Don't worry, I'm not counting the ones that I haven't even met yet, plus we're obviously not all blood-related."

If he went along with human tradition like he was planning and her parents said yes when he asked for her hand then apparently he was going to have a lot of new human siblings.

He truly didn't have any idea how he was going to explain this to his own family if her non-parent, parents agreed.

"Family dinners are going to be awkward," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Garrus?"

"Nothing, just excited to meet your family and siblings, all two dozen plus of them."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, go lurk if you want.  
[Tumblr](https://thevanillahorizon.tumblr.com)


End file.
